Rethinking “Set for Variability” in Reading Instruction

 

Dr. Lynne Kulich, drawing on Timothy Shanahan’s recent writing on decodable texts, describes set for variability as the ability to adjust a pronunciation when the first decoding attempt does not make sense. A child applies a phonics pattern, notices the word does not fit the sentence, and tries again using syntax and meaning. Shanahan’s point is that English is not perfectly consistent, and overly predictable texts can obscure the flexibility skilled readers actually use.

Scroll below to see the LinkedIn post by Dr. Lynne Kulich. 

Challenging the Phonological Awareness Deficit Theory of Dyslexia: Lessons from Teaching 80 Struggling Readers

 

In 2004, I began teaching a bright young child to read. Like many educators at the time, I turned to the internet for guidance and encountered countless articles claiming that the primary cause of dyslexia was a phonological awareness deficit. This idea—that children with dyslexia struggle mainly because they can't properly perceive or manipulate the sounds in spoken language—dominated the conversation. 

Dyslexia Debate - Martin Bloomfield with Julian Elliott (Part 2)

 

Julian Elliott:

What I mean by that is let's return to the original meaning of this term which is a severe and persistent problem with reading and we can use that to discuss or describe children.

So, the whole dyslexia debate is only about changing squiggles to language and that does not require high IQ.

Different perspectives – Part 4 – Blocking

 

Here are two tweets I have a different perspective on.

Dr. Mary Howard @DrMaryHoward  Jun 13, 2023

I'd add.... ignore blatant attacks because there is no good that will come from responding.

Pick your battles & find inroads but ignore dead-end streets that lead only to a childish Twitter battleground. I learned this lesson the hard way. Share legitimate info & avoid the fray

Dr. Sam Bommarito @DoctorSam7 Jun 14

I just gave that same advice in the comments to my blog. If it's apparent the person wants to attack rather than discuss, simply block them. Picking your battles is critical, some of them purposely say outrageous things to get you to go down an off-topic rabbit hole.

I don’t ignore blatant attacks when they are silly and evil.

The failure to meaningfully address illiteracy feels intentional. (Part 2)

 

i.                     There were several emails to and from Dr.David Boulton. After the initial few emails he stopped responding to my questions. I commented on Dr. David Boulton’s LinkedIn post. He unfriended me on LinkedIn but immediately deleted the videos that were detrimental to kid that I had complained about. You may read my comments and his response at https://www.dyslexiafriend.com/2017/07/drboulton-drlyon-and-drengelmann-on_23.html#more

 

If he disagreed with me and blocked me why would he delete the 2 videos I had complained about? The 2 videos deleted were videos teaching consonants with extraneous sounds.

 

Please read the comments from my readers on the post above.

The Problem with, "Show Me the Research" Thinking

The following are some extracts from an article found here.

I request all educators to read the article.

Opaque languages vs. transparent languages

This morning, I read a post by Dr.Timothy Shanahan where it is stated that English is an opaque language and these are my thoughts on that post.

Many articles have been written on transparent languages such as Italian, Spanish, Finnish, Malay and many other languages which are easy to learn to read. 

Practice makes perfect – REALLY?

I saw a post in LinkedIn which said ‘practice makes perfect’. I disagree and will give my opinion below. I believe perfect practice makes perfect.

The reading war as pointed out by Jo-Anne Gross from Canada, a Remediation teacher, has been going on for 45 years. 

Extracts of interview – Timothy Shanahan in COTC (Part 5)

David Boulton:  The first thing that children who are struggling sense and come away with is that there must be something wrong with them.

Dr. Timothy Shanahan:  I think that’s true. I think most of us, if we fail at something, don’t blame the teacher or the book or the school. We blame ourselves.

Extracts of interview – Timothy Shanahan in COTC (Part 3)

David Boulton:  Why is learning to read so difficult?  

Dr. Timothy Shanahan:  I’m not sure we entirely know that. Certainly, one very small group of kids has something that doesn’t quite work right in their brains in terms of picking up this kind of information. They don’t do it that easily. That doesn’t mean that they can’t learn to.

Extracts of interview – Timothy Shanahan in COTC (Part 2)

David Boulton: Tell me about the state of reading in America as you assess it from your position with the National Reading Panel and as a member of the International Reading Association – share with us your national perspective of this. 

Extracts of interview – Dr.Timothy Shanahan in COTC (Part 1)

You may read the full interview here - Children of the Code.

Dr. Timothy Shanahan:  What we really want all systems set up towards is making sure that people are getting more literate. Obviously, more literate means different things. If we’re talking about a third grader it might mean just raising his traditional reading level. If we’re talking about an older student or an adult you very well might be talking about using literacy in an entirely different way than they’ve ever used it before or using it to drive a kind of thinking that they never or rarely engage in. As far as I’m concerned, anyone who wants to increase literacy, I’m on their team. 

Reading, to me, involves some kind of an interpretation of written symbols.

Dr. Thimothy Shanahan’s blog post on Phonics (Part 3)

Here is a comment by another reader of Shanahan's blog:

Debbie Hepplewhite

Jul 24, 2017 06:45 AM

Hi Tim,

I wonder if Luqman Michel was actually referring to the pronunciation of letters with an added "uh" which can be misleading rather than suggesting it is 'phonics' as such that is causing the problem?

I've watched part of the video and note that the pronunciation of phonemes as beginning sounds in words is not that great.

Instead of saying /k/, for example, the narrator/singer says /k+u/. Instead of /s/, /s+u/, instead of /m/, /m+u/ and so on.

Dr. Thimothy Shanahan’s blog post on Phonics (Part 2)

This first paragraph below is from my previous post:

Dr.Timothy Shanaghan: The point isn't that phonics is an important thing to learn for English Learners, it is that it is not the only thing they need to learn. There is a reason that English proficiency is the top predictor of literacy learning for English learners.

Dr. Thimothy Shanahan’s blog post on Phonics (Part 1)

Recently I came across a Blog maintained by Dr. Timothy Shanahan. I made the following comments and received his responses below.

At the bottom of this page you will see the link to Dr.Shanahan’s blog but for now let us look at my comments and his response.

I hope this discussion with Dr.Timothy Shanahan will continue.